Self Publishing News For Self-Publishing Authors

If you’re marketing a book through Amazon, you know that compelling marketing copy on your Amazon sales page is vital to capturing the imaginations of prospective book buyers. However, writing to appeal to calculating, non-human, Internet search engines is far more complex than artfully crafting frilly paragraphs. Search engines simply don’t react emotionally to riveting copy; they use complex algorithms to discover and index relevant content, and then present that content to humans who search for it on the Internet.

Amazon Listing Optimization by Outskirts Press is designed to tailor Amazon sales pages to both human tastes and those confusing search engine algorithms.

As an author, you’ve mastered the art of colorful, descriptive writing. You know just what to say to paint a vivid image in a reader’s mind. However, writing to sell and to attract potential book buyers via Internet search engines is a different animal entirely. It may be unfair, but when it comes to Internet marketing, it’s simply not enough to be a fantastic writer. To channel readers to your page and get them to follow through with a purchase, online copy must balance a number of vital components:

• Relevant keywords and key phrases that get the page indexed appropriately by search engines such as Google or Yahoo! so that more potential buyers are directed to your sales page.
• Correct keyword-to-content ratio. Too few keywords and your page won’t turn up in readers’ searches; too many – a technique called “keyword stuffing” – and your page could be rejected entirely by search engines and virtually invisible to book buyers!
• Technically well-written text with spot-on grammar and punctuation.
• Enticing language that Instantly grabs readers and compels them to continue reading.
• Accurate representation of your book.
• The power to convince potential buyers to make the leap from simply reading the sales page to making a purchase.
• All the information a buyer needs to follow through with a purchase.
• Information in an arrangement that makes it convenient and easy for buyers to act on the impulse to buy.
• Content that is regularly refreshed to give your sales page a renewed bump up the search engine results page (SERP). It’s not sufficient to just write killer sales copy and leave it up in perpetuity; new content must be posted periodically to prevent the page from slowly dropping off the SERP.

In addition to all of these components, it’s also important that the content is produced with the product’s category or industry in mind – in this case, self-publishing — as well as the genre to which the self-published book belongs (fiction, nonfiction, self-help, reference, etc.). It’s enough to make your head spin!

Fortunately, Outskirts Press is uniquely positioned to fulfill all these requirements of Internet marketing copy through a new Amazon Listing Optimization service. As experts in the publishing industry, our staff understands what entices readers to buy. Additionally, our staff of professional marketers includes writers trained in SEO writing techniques, allowing us to improve how your sales page performs in Internet searches and attract more readers to your sales page.

We realize many of our authors, as talented as they are, may not have had the opportunity to train in marketing or SEO copywriting. Our Amazon Listing Optimization allows you to apply our expertise in these disciplines inexpensively and hassle-free, and reap the benefits: additional sales revenue.